9 Things I Wish I Knew About My Body When I Was Younger

Don't just stop eating and wait to Animorph into Lily Aldridge.

1. Eating poorly and being like, "OK TIME TO ANIMORPH INTO LILY ALDRIDGE" is not effective. Not only will the weight come right back and you'll be messing with your metabolism forever, but you know you are going to get drunk and eat eight slices of pizza with the world on them.

2. Wear whatever. There's no such being as being "too old" or "too big" for an outfit. Fuck that. You are a baby, and even if you weren't, you can wear American Apparel U-neck dresses until you die.

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3. Only you notice your giant pores/split ends/uneven skin tone. Do not spend zillions of dollars and energy trying to fix tiny flaws that drive you nuts. Nobody else notices that tiny cluster of zits you spent $200 trying to fix.

4. Pick a workout that you enjoy, not one that's most effective and guarantees summer abs. Rather than sticking to an intense and horrible workout program for about five days and then slipping, just go to yoga twice a week or whenever you can. You'll get toned, but more importantly, it is good for your soooooul.

6. Even "natural"-looking celebs in magazines are probably Photoshopped. Just because Gwyneth Paltrow is on the cover of Vanity Bazaar or what have you, wearing a free-range organic grass-fed $7,000 tunic, doesn't mean nobody made her slimmer or more glow-y with computer magic.

7. Comparing your body to friends' won't get you anywhere. Even your friend with the most amazing body hates something about herself. We all just need to own it! And seething with jealousy about another woman's delts won't make your delts any firmer. (Or thinner. Or whatever it is delts are supposed to look like.)

8. Find the skin makeup that works for you — just because a friend loves hers doesn't mean it's the right kind. BB cream, lauded by all of my friends as fantastic, made me break out.

9. Stop worrying about being tan. It might look great now, but in a few years, you'll have scary, potentially cancerous freckles and freak out every summer when you see them. Don't become cancer-prone leather just for temporary #hotness.